Daily Archives: May 20, 2016

Budding Counter Strike: Global Offensive talent Marcus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye has joined up with Astralis, while Rene “Cajunb” Borg is headed the other way to Team Dignitas.

Cajunb had been a long-standing member of the Astralis lineup, extending back to before they began their own organization. He had been a key player during their rise to challenge the world’s best, and their achievements include multiple semi-final finishes at Major tournaments.

On the other hand, though he is only 18 and had little experience in the big stages, Kjaerbye has been nothing less than outstanding for Dignitas. Needless to say, he is exactly what Astralis needs especially after their poor run of form in recent months.

Most recently, the youngster had helped Dignitas to make it to the ESL One Cologne Major qualifier. However, this also prevents him from featuring for Astralis in the tournament, and the team has already stated that they will be looking for a stand-in for the event.

Cajunb would be unavailable for the stand-in spot given that he will be helping Dignitas in the Major qualifiers. Meanwhile, Kjaerbye is eligible for other tournaments, including the Esports Championship Series (ECS) and the upcoming ELEAGUE.

So far, both Danish teams had reacted positively to the roster change. After all, Astralis had added to their ranks a young, motivated and explosive player who has proved that he can compete with the best in the scene, while Dignitas welcomes the return of a familiar friend who fought alongside them for a whole year.

On the other side of the pool, Echo Fox replaces departing AWPer Mohamad “m0E” Assad, with former OpTic Gaming and Cloud9 player Shahzeeb “Shahzam” Khan.

Shahzam had been playing alongside the North American team for some time but had only confirmed his place in the team yesterday. Previously, moE had left Echo Fox without a dedicated AWP player as he departed in response to heavy criticism directed towards his performance.

Now that he is formally added in to the ranks of the team, Shahzam will join up with Sean “sgares” Gares once more since Shahzam’s departure from Cloud9. His first match as an official Echo Fox starter will come against Team Liquid in the ECS tomorrow, while the team is still awaiting their ELEAGUE group placement.

Roger Federer will go two Slams short this year as the Swiss Maestro withdraws from the French Open.

Federer had not played in the Madrid Open earlier this month after hurting his back during practice for the tournament. He returned for the Italian Open but was promptly beaten in the third round by Dominic Thiem.

The first signs of trouble for Federer came after the Australian Open in January, as Federer underwent a surgery after he tore a knee cartilage when he ran a bath for his twin daughters.

He had suffered further injury bouts since then. So far, Federer could only attend 4 events this year as he got infected by a bout of flu and suffered a back injury.

The Swiss practiced in Roland Garros, but the persisting back injury had apparent repercussions on his preparations for the Open event, as well as the remaining two Grand Slams in 2016 and the Olympics.

“I have been making steady progress, but I am still not 100%,” the former world number one had said.

“I feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready,” he added. “This decision was not easy to make, but I took it to ensure I could play the remainder of the season and help to extend the rest of my career.”

This will be the first time in this century that Roger Federer misses a Grand Slam event, but it is certain that many will take this as an inevitable sign of the 34-year-old’s eventual decline as time passes him by.

The last time Federer did not take part in a Grand Slam singles main draw was back in ugust 1999, when he lost in the second round of the qualifying tournament at the United States Open to a fellow Swiss, Ivo Heuberger.

Since then, Federer had played a record 65 straight Grand Slam singles tournaments, winning a record of 17 Grand Slam titles and firmly establishing himself as the most successful men’s player of the Open era.